Search - Jimmy Giuffre :: The Jimmy Giuffre 3 / The Music Man

My first Jimmy disc, and it is sure a winner...

William E. Adams | Midland, Texas USA | 05/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first started to listen to jazz in the early '60's as I was finishing high school and trying to get into a college. I recall that Jimmy Giuffre, (who died earlier this year) was always well-respected in the jazz polls published in Hugh Hefner's magazine, but I never bought one of his LP's. Recently I found this one on Amazon and took the plunge. These two records, one from 1957 and the other done a year later, are wonderful. On the first, Jimmy plays baritone sax, tenor sax and the clarinet, sometimes all on the same track. The songs have a folk/blues feel. In fact, one track "The Train and the River" is said (although not in these liner notes) to have been inspired by Giuffre's friendship with Cisco Houston, my favorite folksinger and Woody Guthrie's best friend. I know a lot about Cisco, who died in 1961, but I never had known of his acquaintance with jazzmen. Playing with Jimmy on this half of the CD is the great Jim Hall on guitar and Ralph Pena on bass. The whole thing is very pleasant, but my favorite is probably their version of "The Song is You." The second record is Jimmy's jazzy meditation on the tunes from my favorite American musical, Meredith Willson's "The Music Man." This is fun all the way. Jimmy chose a medium size group for a jazz record, consisting of three trumpets, three saxes, bass, drums, and his own three horns. Highlights here include "Goodnight My Someone" and "My White Knight" and "Till There Was You" in addition to the more familiar "Seventy-Six Trombones" and "Wells Fargo Wagon." If you are not familiar with Jimmy Giuffre's work, but you like jazz, folk and musicals, you can't regret buying this two-fer before it goes out of print. This is great stuff to use to soothe your ears during a 90-minute drive, or a three-hour journey if you want to play it twice."